Darkwhispers

by Vashti Hardy

  “We’re a little further away than I’d hoped, but let’s swim for the bank, there by that waterfall, and go from there.”

  Before he knew it, Ermitage had launched himself from the SMEM and was swimming like a fish towards the bank. Arthur shot after him, doing his best to keep up and kicking his legs furiously, not only to propel himself forward, but in the hope that anything that might be viewing him as dinner would get a heavy kick to the jaw first.

  Soon Arthur found he could stand, and they made their way up the rocky bank next to the waterfall.

  Arthur put his hand on his knee and took gulps of breath.

  “Don’t forget to look up!” said Ermitage.

  When Arthur looked up, he saw something glistening high among the trees: great glass orbs that appeared to be part of the rock face beside the cascading streams.

  “Are those houses?” he asked breathlessly.

  “Indeed. Aren’t they something?”

  Only then did Arthur notice that beside the waterfall, children with sun-blushed skin, tight brown leggings, and rubbery ankle boots were playing and climbing, and there were what appeared to be some elegant-looking boats moored.

  They had already been spotted and a woman was heading their way. She was dressed in the same tight green trousers that he’d seen the Erytheans back on the Aurora wearing, and a fitted matching jacket. Her long, plaited hair hung over her shoulder.

  “Ermitage, we haven’t seen you in two weeks! We feared you’d got washed away in the old-tech!” she laughed, and looked pointedly at Arthur, waiting for Ermitage to explain who he was.

  “Oh … yes, this is Arthur; he’s lost. I expect you’ve heard news of the Vornatanian crew, the Culpeppers?”

  She nodded. “Of course. It’s quite the inter-town talk.”

  “We’re on our way to the city and wondered if we could borrow a water-wing?”

  “No,” she said bluntly.

  “I thought you said they were friendly,” whispered Arthur.

  “No, because if you look to the north, you will see great clouds are forming. Another deluge is coming. Please be our guests, and when the waters are safe you can travel onwards.”

  “We’re staying in one of the orbs?” Arthur said nervously.

  Ermitage patted him on the back. “Fear not. They’re completely watertight, so when the lake level rises, they offer quite the view!”

  CHAPTER 20

  THE FLOOD

  It was the cold that dragged Maudie from the dream she was having, where she had been back on the sky-ship with Arthur and the others.

  It wasn’t a debilitating cold like she’d experienced in South Polaris, more an annoying shift in temperature. Somewhere in the misty stairway between sleep and awareness, Maudie realized the fire must’ve gone out, and everything felt wet.

  She forced her eyes open. There was barely any light coming in from above … because water was tumbling through! After a moment of disbelief, she sprang into action. The cave was already full of water up to the ledge, and there was no way to retreat to the entrance.

  She drew quick, heavy breaths of panic. The stream of water was torrential – she could hardly see.

  Without thinking, she hurried along the rock as far as she could, feeling the walls for any ridges, hoping that perhaps she could climb out. She found a ledge not too far from one of the holes above and pushed herself up, then reached for another. The rocks were horribly slippery, and her heart pounded like great pistons as she forced her fingers to cling with a determined grip. When she reached for the next lip of rock, her fingers slipped across the surface and she almost fell. The water tumbled and roared, but she could make it if she just clung on.

  Below, something moved in the water, long and lizard-like. It surfaced and seemed to fix its eyes on her, pointed teeth poking from its jaw. It wasn’t as big as a crocodile, perhaps just the length of her forearm, but she was certain it could do some serious damage, and where there was one there could be more. She had to get out.

  After several breaths, she looked up into the grim light, water cascading all around. Suddenly she realized that a face was peering down at her. It belonged to a small, bear-like creature, and it was clinging on to the side and reaching towards her.

  In her surprise, she lost her grip and fell back into the water, spinning over and over in the relentless flow, so that she lost track of which way was up. Her lungs were tight, fighting for air.

  After several powerful kicks, one of which she felt hit something she hoped was the water-lizard, she broke the surface and gasped for air, but the water was falling from the ceiling in an unstoppable torrent now and the cave was filling up fast. Her heart thudded. If she could make it back to the opening, perhaps she could let the cave fill and get out, but could she climb through the rush of water without falling back to certain death in the water-filled cavern? Something brushed past her leg, and she yelped and kicked with all her might, then fought to get close to the opening again, but the push of the incoming water was so furious that she could barely get close.

  Looking up frantically, she saw the bear above again clinging to the rock at the opening, its eyes big and staring intensely at her. She wondered if she was only imagining it now, in her panic.

  Perhaps the rain would stop, and she could hold on to a ledge until the water level receded? But it seemed to be getting fiercer by the moment. Terror held her in an icy vice.

  The jewels in the cave walls shone like crimson stars and she had a strange, unbidden thought that if this was the end for her, at least it was in a beautiful place.

  Never give up. That’s what her father had always said; it was what Harriet said. And Arty.

  Arthur. She had to see him again; she couldn’t let this happen.

  She put every effort she had into getting as close to the opening as possible and found a small ledge. She gripped it as though she had the strength of a mountain and found a lip of rock for her foot underwater. Something brushed past her again, and with an almighty heave she pushed herself two-thirds out of the water.

  The hole was about two metres away; she needed to get higher. There was one of the jewels she could use as a handhold, so she pushed in with her feet and reached for it.

  She made it.

  Above, the small, bear-like animal kept watching with its urgent eyes, but Maudie forced herself to ignore it; if it was dangerous and that intense look meant it was deciding if she was its next meal, there was nothing she could do about it. Perhaps it was simply waiting for her to drown. Whatever it was didn’t matter; she had to get out of the cave top. It was her only option.

  She scanned the wall for another ledge. There was nothing. A thousand thoughts flooded her brain with every moment. If only she’d not fallen asleep in the cave; if only they’d not crashed the sea-ship; if only Eudora hadn’t stolen their sky-ship with Arthur on it.

  It was Eudora’s fault. Everything was. Maudie yelled in her frustration, but the sound was lost in the torrent of water.

  The bear disappeared. She’d probably frightened it away. Now she really was alone and about to die. The water was flowing at such a rate that it was making it almost impossible to hang on.

  Then the bear reappeared, hanging down into the cave somehow, reaching a strange little webbed hand towards her. It was trying to help!

  She gripped for her life with one hand and let go with the other, stretching towards her unlikely rescuer, growling with the effort and frustration.

  But she lost her grip.

  Maudie splashed back into the water and was pulled down by the current. She managed to kick for the surface, but tears of frustration and impending disaster were raging in her eyes as the power of the surge prevented her swimming back towards the hole. She gave one last flurry of kicks, but she was caught in the cascade falling from above and was pulled beneath, whirling round and round in the flow.

  Something brushed her hand. And a strange thought sparked that she might not have a choice between death by enor
mous lizard or death by drowning; it would be whichever got to her first. And it was almost funny that she was even contemplating this as she was pulled by the torrent.

  But the thing, whatever it was, hadn’t just brushed her hand; it grabbed and held her, and tugged. The grip was incredibly strong. She needed air and tried to kick for the surface, but she was being dragged down. Perhaps it was the first bite of the lizard? She would’ve screamed if it hadn’t meant losing what little breath was left in her lungs, but they were moving away from the torrent and now she turned to see in the eerie pink light that it was the bear creature that had hold of her. It yanked her fiercely and she went with it, knowing she had little choice, her lungs burning to breathe. They surfaced in another small section of cave and she gasped a lungful of air.

  The creature kept hold of her arm, its eyes full of concern, not aggression. Something like gills contracted around its jawline. What was this strange animal? Some sort of water-bear? Could it be the creature Arthur had claimed to see back in Nova? But there was no time to think, as the water was still getting higher. The water-bear pulled on her arm gently as though as to say, We need to go again, and Maudie nodded. She took several deep gulps of air and they submerged. The flow was less turbulent, and they seemed to be going upwards into another cave section. They surfaced once more and again she gulped in air. It was a larger cavern, and Maudie thought perhaps they could stay here and wait out the deluge, but she could see that even here the level was still rising.

  Her companion grasped both her arms with its funny webbed hands, and it looked intensely in her eyes. It was trying to tell her something, and Maudie realized at that moment with absolute certainty that this creature was sapient.

  Its eyes were telling her to trust it.

  And she did. She didn’t know why or how, but she felt it in her heart.

  So she breathed in several more deep breaths and nodded, but the creature continued staring at her, so she took several more breaths, in the certainty that the water-bear was telling her to prepare.

  They submerged once more and the water-bear towed her along again, this time through a long tunnel. She could barely see, but there seemed to be fewer of the pink jewels in the walls. Don’t let go, don’t let go, she repeated in her head, but her lungs were squeezing for air again. Dizziness and panic were gripping her, and the faded pink light blotted away as she verged on blacking out. Yet she kicked on, and the small water-bear pulled with all its strength.

  Then there was light! Not the pink glow of the cave jewels, but the grey light of the storm. There was an opening ahead!

  They surfaced and Maudie gulped the fresh air. The water-bear, still clutching her hand, pulled her up a bank of rock and out of the opening. Around was dense forest; enormous trees with trunks that six people could link arms around. Water cascaded from the sky at a rate unlike anything she had ever seen before in her thirteen years. She was already drenched from the caves, but it plastered her hair to her face and her clothes felt twice as heavy as the unyielding rain pushed down. The water was above her calves, and the water-bear’s furry little snout was only just above the surface. It hurried her forward. It was clear they weren’t safe yet, and the water was still rising. Soon it was up to her thighs, and the water-bear tried to pull her along and swim at the same time, but she was too slow, so it climbed up her body and sat on her shoulder, looping its tail around her neck and pointing its clawed webbed paw onwards. The water was above Maudie’s hips now and it was getting harder to move. Something moved close by – a fallen branch?

  No, this had eyes.

  Gold-slatted eyes fixed on them. A scaly, pointed tail flicked – it was the same kind of creature she’d seen in the cave: a great lizard with a pointed snout, but this one was as large as her and it was coming for them with teeth bared.

  The water-bear frantically pointed to a tree. She lurched for it and grabbed a branch, heaving them both up and finding a foothold. She yelped as she looked over her shoulder to see great jaws opening, a thousand knife-sharp teeth coming at her. With an almighty effort, fuelled by the great rush of adrenaline, they were out of the water, the teeth snapping just inches from her, and she was climbing the tree. The water-bear jumped off and led the way from branch to branch. When Maudie looked down, she thought the water was catching up, but just when she thought there couldn’t possibly be any more energy left in her body, she doubled her effort and reached for another branch, pushing down into her feet, up and up. And up.

  They must’ve been higher than the rooftops and chime towers of Lontown, higher than the Geographical Society tower.

  The water-bear had slowed a little, and Maudie took it as a sign that they were reaching a safe point. They must’ve been about two-thirds of the way up these colossal trees. She paused with her feet on a mighty branch and clung to another, gasping for breath. Maudie risked a peek down to check the water, but it was now far below. Breathing out in relief, she looked around, then gasped in surprise. There were hundreds of the water-bears in the trees around her, hanging by their tails from branches, hugging the tree trunks and peeking over the top of what appeared to be something like huge bird’s nests.

  The water-bear that had saved her pulled an expression that looked incredibly like a smile and reached towards her from above. She took its little webbed paw in hers and followed it up through the tree and into one of the nests. A canopy of leaves above sheltered them from the still-falling rain. Perhaps it had eased a little; she couldn’t be sure. She sank back into the nest and counted ten breaths, each one getting progressively calmer. The water-bear passed her a pawful of nuts and berries. She examined them, wary of what might poison her, but as though to show her there was nothing to fear, the water-bear ate a few.

  The foods were sweet and wholesome, and with each tiny bite, she could feel herself revive. The other water-bears had mostly disappeared back into various nests, but she noticed two other water-bears in a nest looking down, slightly bigger than the one that had saved her. They didn’t strike Maudie as being sapient like this one, but they did look a little concerned.

  “Are they your parents?” Maudie asked.

  For a moment Maudie wondered if the water-bear might answer, in the way the thought-wolves did through thoughts, but it didn’t. Instead it took her hand and brushed the back of his own across it. It was furry, unlike the webbed areas and his palms. Could that small action mean “yes”?

  “So, they are your parents?” she said. Again, the water-bear brushed her palm with the back of its hand. “I think you are saying yes!” She smiled to herself; despite all the horror of the past twenty-four chimes or so, she felt safe for the first time. She lay back. The nest was lined with leaves and moss, and there were some of the glowing, pink jewels embedded in the sides. Her eyes suddenly felt uncontrollably heavy. The storm was passing, the rain slowing, and night was falling. The water-bear laid down close by. Maudie didn’t want to sleep until the rain had completely stopped, but in this strange new land, who knew what was possible, if it would ever end. But the water-bear seemed relaxed, the rain finally petered away, and the clouds passed, leaving space for stars to soothe the sky. And only then did she allow herself to fall into a long, deep, healing sleep.

  CHAPTER 21

  WATERFALLS

  Arthur and Ermitage had been given their own orb house for the night. It was completely different from the old-tech houses, and as the water had risen in the deluge, the lights came on, which Ermitage said were driven by ion batteries charged by the waterfall, and it had felt as though they were in a magical underground kingdom. The orbs were perfectly watertight but had side escape pods as standard, which could detach and float until the waters subsided. Inside, the pods had special compartments to store food and keep it cool and fresh, and indoor gardens and even lavatories. Arthur had snoozed lightly through the night, looking out at the underwater creatures swimming past, illuminated by the glittering lights of the pods, until the water levels dropped, and it was almost day a
gain.

  By the time Arthur awoke, many of the elegant-looking boats were out in the lake fishing.

  “Ah, the water-wings,” said Ermitage.

  “Is that what they call their boats?” asked Arthur.

  Ermitage nodded. “Well, this particular boat, which is their most common mode of transport. The rain and flood bring in nutrients from the canopy and it causes a feeding frenzy in the fish,” Ermitage explained. “The local inhabitants make good use of the post-deluge abundance.”

  They climbed down from the orb using ladders that criss-crossed the rock face.

  Arthur called to Ermitage. “We can’t just take a boat. Won’t the people who live here be a bit, well, furious?”

  “My dear, you’re in Erythea now. Here things tend to be shared: houses, vehicles, food. Water-wings aren’t possessions; they’re part of life. If it’s moored in a certain direction, it’s a sign that it’s free for whoever should find themselves with a need next.”

  “Wow! Imagine if Lontown was like that and full of sky-ships! You could just take one to get you wherever you like.”

  “There’s lots we could learn from these people. If they’d let us.”

  “They’re letting you stay here and learn, aren’t they?”

  Ermitage went very quiet for several moments. He looked to the ground, then sighed and said, “As I’ve said, that’s because I’ve promised them that I’ll never return to Lontown.”

  Arthur felt panic flood his veins. What if they made him stay here too? What if they didn’t let him go back to Maudie and the others?

  Ermitage patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about what hasn’t happened yet. The Erytheans will already know you are here, so there is nothing you can do. Let’s cross each bridge, or fallen log, as we go, shall we?”

  Arthur nodded.

  They had to walk a little upstream to find a free water-wing. They saw one tethered over the other side of a small gorge.